Striking collaboration: Russian, Belarus and American arrived at the ISS space station

A Russian, Belarusian and American astronaut have arrived at the ISS space station. The trio traveled together in a Soyuz spacecraft, which was launched on Saturday.

It is a striking undertaking, because Europeans or Americans no longer work together with the Russians on virtually any subject. Cooperation with the Russians has also been stopped in several space programs.

But with the ISS, the different countries must work together, says Philippe Schoonejans, project manager at the European Space Agency (ESA). “The ISS has an American part, a Russian part, a Japanese part and a European part. In particular, you cannot separate the Russian and American parts, because they give each other power, and they ensure that the ISS is pointed in the right direction state.”

Each other’s backup

Also on the way to the space station, the different countries still choose to travel with the same vehicle. And it is important that that remains possible, says Schoonejans. The Russian Soyuz and the American SpaceX Dragon are each other’s backup, he explains.

According to him, both the Russians and Americans do not want to end up in the situation where they can no longer go to the space station. “Suppose a problem occurs with the Soyuz or SpaceX Dragon, they first have to figure out what is going on. That could take a few years.” The flight control centers in Houston and Moscow can also still receive each other, according to Schoonejans.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not a topic of discussion during joint operations, says the ESA project manager. According to him, the astronauts mainly talk about the content. “They are of course in that aircraft for a while, and that goes well. They often know each other from the past, have trained together, and can be friends.”

Nurturing cooperation

Although the collaboration is partly forced, according to Schoonejans it is also one to cherish. “We obviously don’t work together on any other point anymore,” he says. “Russia is the largest country in the world. If there is ever a ‘regime change’ there, and we want to expand cooperation again, then fortunately we have one topic on which cooperation still takes place.”